Famous Cricketers No 65 - Len Hutton

5 A.L.Valentine (West Indies) It is worthy of note, perhaps, that in 1945 R.G.Williams of the Australian Services team took his wicket five times in the six first-class games in which he played against him and he also had him caught in a two day game with Yorkshire. In 1950 Roy Tattersall of Lancashire took his wicket in each innings of both the “Roses “ matches. Opening Partnerships for England Len Hutton opened the batting in 76 of the 79 Tests he played in for England and 131 out of the 138 innings he played. His Test career was from 1937 to 1955 and in this period he had no fewer than eighteen opening partners, including three different ones in the three Tests against the West Indies in 1939 which were the only occasions on which these players opened with him in Test cricket. The statistics of these partnerships is as below in the order of his first partnership with the players concerned. M I NO R Highest Ave 100 50 J.H.Parks (1937) 1 2 0 21 13 10.50 - - C.J.Barnett (1937–38) 4 6 0 388 219 64.66 2 - W.J.Edrich (1938–53) 6 10 0 283 60 28.30 - 2 P.A.Gibb (1938/39) 4 6 0 238 78 39.66 - 2 H.Gimblett (1939) 1 2 0 84 49 42.00 - - A.E.Fagg (1939) 1 2 0 47 26 23.50 - - W.W.Keeton (1939) 1 2 0 41 39 20.50 - - C.Washbrook (1946–1950/51) 28 51 3 2880 359 60.00 8 13 J.D.B.Robertson (1947/48–1949) 3 6 0 469 143 78.16 2 2 J.G.Dewes (1948) 1 2 0 22 20 11.00 - - R.T.Simpson (1949–1954/55) 9 15 0 476 147 31.73 2 1 J.T.Ikin (1951) 3 6 1 214 121 42.80 1 - F.A.Lowson (1951) 2 3 0 154 99 51.33 - 2 D.S.Sheppard (1952) 2 2 0 221 143 110.50 1 1 D.Kenyon (1953) 2 4 0 58 26 14.50 - - W.Watson (1953/54) 3 5 0 203 130 40.60 1 - T.E.Bailey (1953/54–1954/55) 3 4 0 148 73 37.00 - 1 T.W.Graveney (1954/55) 2 3 0 88 60 29.33 - 1 His partnership with Cyril Washbrook was, of course, one of the most famous in the history of Test cricket and no wonder with an average of 60 per innings over 28 Tests. Washbrook had a poor series in Australia in 1950/51, but there are many who feel that he was jettisoned too soon from the England side as Hutton’s partner. That there is nothing new in selectors’ indecision can be seen from the 1939 series when Hutton had three different opening partners in the three Tests. Len Hutton as a Bowler Although Hutton’s claim to fame obviously is based on his superlative batsmanship, which one hopes has been made clear in the statistics and comments on his career, it is often overlooked that in his younger days he was a very useful bowler. He was that rare performer in Yorkshire cricket, a leg-break and googly bowler. No less a judge than the great George Hirst thought very highly of his promise in this department and he received many favourable comments on this aspect of his cricket from the press both in Yorkshire and nationally. He was unable to fulfil his true potential, however, as his growing eminence as a world-class batsman, allied to a less than robust physique, made his Yorkshire captain unwilling to make too many demands upon him; moreover, with Hedley Verity and Ellis Robinson in the side his county had a very powerful spin attack. On his County Championship debut at Edgbaston as a seventeen-year old he took three good Warwickshire wickets in addition to scoring 50 and taking three catches. There were many impressive victims amongst his 173 wickets as can be seen below: 72